Mamluk
Mamluk (Arabic: مملوك mamlūk (singular), مماليك mamālīk (plural), meaning "property" or "owned slave" of the king, also transliterated as mamlouk, mamluq, mamluke, mameluk, mameluke, mamaluke or marmeluke) is an Arabic designation for slaves.
More specifically, it refers to:
Khwarazmian dynasty in Persia (1077–1231)
Mamluk Dynasty (Delhi) (1206–1290)
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) (1250–1517)
Mamluk dynasty of Iraq (1704–1831, under Ottoman Iraq)
The most enduring Mamluk realm was the military caste in medieval Egypt that rose from the ranks of slave soldiers who were mainly Turkic,Circassian,Georgian, and Coptic Egyptian. Many Mamluks could also be of Balkan origin (Albanian, Greek, and South Slavic). The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior class, was of great political importance and was extraordinarily long-lived, lasting from the 9th to the 19th centuries AD.
Over time, mamluks became a powerful military caste in various societies that were controlled by Muslim rulers. Particularly in Egypt, but also in the Levant, Mesopotamia, and India, mamluks held political and military power. In some cases, they attained the rank of sultan, while in others they held regional power as amirs or beys. Most notably, mamluk factions seized the sultanate for themselves in Egypt and Syria in a period known as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The Mamluk Sultanate famously beat back the troops of the Ilkhanate at the Battle of Ain Jalut and fought the Crusaders, effectively driving them out from the Levant and Egypt in 1213-1221 and 1154-1169 then officially in 1302 from the Levant ending the era of the Crusades.
